


A shadow on me

by middlemarch



Category: Poldark (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Astronomy, F/M, Motel, Roadtrip, Romance, Song Lyrics, Vignette, eclipse - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-22
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-18 12:01:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11873934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch
Summary: They were supposed to stay in New York longer, take in another show, another museum...





	A shadow on me

“Was it worth it?” Ross asked from his end of the lumpy motel mattress. It was a terrible bed in a terrible motel and so Demelza was close by, resting her bright head on his shoulder instead of the wafer thin pillow. They had driven fifteen hours in a rented car that was now half-filled with wrappers and emptied packets of crisps, to make sure they arrived to time for the event; it was a detour from the trip they had spent months planning at the counter of Nampara, jottings on a legal pad, images flashing across the tablet, but Demelza had gotten the idea into her head that they shouldn’t miss anything and he’d acquiesced. She had not even needed to tell him there hadn’t been a total solar eclipse in England between 1724 and 1925 but she announced it with such conviction, he’d pretended to be persuaded by it. She had been generous with the playlist as they drove as recompense and had let him tease her for her astronomical fascination at least until they reached Virginia.

It hadn’t lasted long. A few minutes, maybe two, of a strange darkness and the insects, cicadas they were called, had fallen silent, more so than the people around them. They’d lifted their spectacled faces to the sky, confident that the dark sun would not fall upon them or angels descend with flaming swords, and he’d felt how she held her breath and how she sighed. In other places, there had only been a pattern of scalloped shadows under the canopy of trees or the disappointment of clouds, but they had come for totality and achieved it. Still he wondered and wanted to hear her answer.

“Oh yes, Ross, at least for me. Was it worth it for you?” she said, lifting her face from his breast, blotting out everything else except the corona of her loose red hair, her blue eyes curious and a little concerned, her lips parted. He could kiss her, he wanted to and she expected it, but he would wait for that. Just a few minutes, maybe two.

“’Course it was, darlin’”

“Truly?” she prodded, her hand pressing against his ribs to brace herself. He almost laughed, he almost rolled them over so he could feel himself above her, between her bare legs, almost but not yet.

“Yes, for the look on your face then, bright eyes” he said, then reached to for the phone and touched it lightly, until the music started, _Turnaround, every now and then…_ and it was Demelza who laughed, who fell upon him, who kissed him, the sun and the moon. He closed his eyes. She would tell him when it was safe to open them.

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by eclipse-mania and forced by the fact Demelza shares to make it a modern AU romp. The title is from "Total Eclipse of the Heart."


End file.
